Heart Surgeons to Publish Surgical Outcomes Online

In a move towards greater transparency, patients will now be able to access a wealth of data about heart surgery in the UK.

Blue Book Online, which has been developed in partnership with the National Institute for Cardiovascular Outcomes Research (NICOR), North West eHealth and Manchester Academic Health Science Centre launched Monday 18 March, at the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery (SCTS) annual meeting in Brighton. The site gives information about trends in activity and outcomes for adult cardiac surgery in the UK. It will sit alongside the existing website to provide further information and reassurances to patients about the quality of UK heart surgery.

The ultimate aim of the websites is to help patients make informed choices about their care and is a major step along the way of placing patients firmly at the centre of healthcare delivery.

Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at the University Hospital of South Manchester, Ben Bridgewater (who spoke at RCSEd's President's Meeting on Surgical Outcomes on 8 March 2013) said there had already been a huge increase in the number of people going online to find out about procedures and the quality of care at hospitals.

"Information is integral to quality health care," he said. "And we have seen an exponential increase in the amount of patients using the internet to find out more accurate and trusted detail about their care.

"In a modernised NHS this is the ideal way for us to publish and keep up-to-date data of surgeons' and hospitals' clinical outcomes."

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